SIKESTON POLICE OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY TO THEFT FROM RESCUE SQUAD

A former Sikeston police officer plead guilty to three felony counts of stealing Monday in connection with the theft of funds from a volunteer search and rescue squad in Sikeston, the state Attorney General's office said.

Douglas A. Brooks, a former sergeant, plead guilty in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court to three felony counts of stealing. His case was handled by a special prosecutor from the Missouri Attorney General's office.

Brooks had served as treasurer of the Sikeston Emergency Search and Rescue Squad beginning in 1995. He had admitted to writing out checks payable to himself or for cash from the squad's bank account. He also told prosecutors that he took money intended for deposit in that account between December 1995 and February 1997. Each of the three felony charges covered amounts of at least $750 that was stolen from the account.

Brooks will be sentenced on Dec. 20. He faces a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each of the three charges. The state Attorney General's office was appointed to prosecute the case in 1998.